2018 Brewers Discussion - Yelich Signing on Page 45

coolhandluke121 · Post #121 » by **coolhandluke121** » Sat Oct 7, 2017 11:25 pm

Kind of arguing about Aguilar over on bf.net, but I think this year was kind of a fluke and there must be better ways to use that roster spot while still having options at 1b. He's exclusively a plodding 1b who had an .800 OPS in over 4000 MiLB pa's and was a full-time minor leaguer through his age 26 season. Can you say Jason Rogers/Matt Clark? Time to put Braun in there, not only against lhp's but also against some rhp's since I'm not convinced Thames should be getting 120 starts. I think Broxton could be a better use of a roster spot than Aguilar if Braun is moved out of the outfield.

El Duderino · Post #122 » by **El Duderino** » Sun Oct 8, 2017 12:57 am

coolhandluke121 wrote:
El Duderino wrote:
Not a fan of Gordon. I just hate guys like him who treat walks like they come with a case of herpes. If his batting average doesn't land over .300 or so, his OBP will be poor in the leadoff spot and he provides no power to help offset a poor OBP.

Depends on the price but I tend to agree. I remember when a lot of Brewers fans wanted to sign Jose Reyes and how perfectly he would theoretically have fit in the lineup. Same goes for Dee Gordon now, but some of the same risks are there too, namely the risk that he's never a good player again.

At least when Reyes was good, he was quite a bit better than Gordon who needed to hit .333 for an OPS above .750 and i doubt he ever breaks .750 again. Reyes had an eight year stretch where his OPS ranged between .749 at worst to .877 at best.

coolhandluke121 · Post #123 » by **coolhandluke121** » Sun Oct 8, 2017 4:53 pm

Add Danny Valencia to my list of 1-year-deal targets. I don't think Aguilar replicates his success this year, and Valencia can play a little 3b as well so it's less of a wasted roster spot.

wichmae · Post #124 » by **wichmae** » Sun Oct 8, 2017 5:41 pm

coolhandluke121 wrote:Add Danny Valencia to my list of 1-year-deal targets. I don't think Aguilar replicates his success this year, and Valencia can play a little 3b as well so it's less of a wasted roster spot.

Or Jed Lowrie. He plays basically the entire infield. One year deals make the most sense. Valencia was a clubhouse issue in Minny though. Personally I want to stay away from that personality.

coolhandluke121 · Post #125 » by **coolhandluke121** » Sun Oct 8, 2017 9:03 pm

wichmae wrote:Or Jed Lowrie. He plays basically the entire infield. One year deals make the most sense. Valencia was a clubhouse issue in Minny though. Personally I want to stay away from that personality.

Didn't know about Valencia. They should spend some of their extra money, but only if the situation is right. I wonder if he's matured... would be a perfect fit for replacing Aguilar and maybe starting at 3b against lhp's a few times a month, with Braun at 1b.

I would love Lowrie. Something tells me he gets more than 1 year in this day and age though. I think a contender sees his versatility and overpays him. Supply and demand.

Aguilar had a .795 OPS when you take away his 6 pa's in Coors. Granted, nearly every NL player gets a few pa's there and you can't just take them away, but still... for a guy you already have to suspect was a total fluke, that's a concern. Shouldn't be hard to replace him.

blazza18 · Post #126 » by **blazza18** » Mon Oct 9, 2017 3:02 am

I saw that Tanaka could opt out after this season. Would anyone be interested in him?

wichmae · Post #127 » by **wichmae** » Mon Oct 9, 2017 3:20 am

blazza18 wrote:I saw that Tanaka could opt out after this season. Would anyone be interested in him?

Would love him here but theres just no way. He has opts out the rest of his current deal. We also arent exactly the biggest market for him too.

Post #128 » by **MickeyDavis** » Fri Oct 13, 2017 5:50 pm

Miller Park is extending the netting to the end of the dugouts. I understand why but I don't like it from a viewing standpoint. I guess I'll get used to it but I don't like sitting behind the netting, I always sit a few rows behind one of the dugouts and now that will be behind netting too.

jakecronus8 · Post #129 » by **jakecronus8** » Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:00 am

MickeyDavis wrote:Miller Park is extending the netting to the end of the dugouts. I understand why but I don't like it from a viewing standpoint. I guess I'll get used to it but I don't like sitting behind the netting, I always sit a few rows behind one of the dugouts and now that will be behind netting too.

It won't take that long to get to the point where you don't notice it.

This is far overdue. Every time someone gets injured in the crowd it messes with the players and they're the ones who always say it should be extended.

You always here people say that if you're at the ball game you need to be on the lookout but I just don't see that being realistic. Given the adage of smart phones, the slow pace of the game and the high speed these projectiles travel, it would only be a matter of time until someone is killed. A 16 year old girl was killed from a flying puck in a hockey game about a decade ago and MLB doesn't want that on their hands.

Kerb Hohl · Post #130 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:15 pm

Going back a few weeks, ever the conspiracy theorist in these things me makes me wonder if the news of "oh, wait, actually Garza doesn't have a $5m option anymore" was actually some PR to let Garza go quietly instead of "Brewers decline cheap option on pitcher that most fans now hate" news.

coolhandluke121 · Post #131 » by **coolhandluke121** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:28 pm

Kerb Hohl wrote:Going back a few weeks, ever the conspiracy theorist in these things me makes me wonder if the news of "oh, wait, actually Garza doesn't have a $5m option anymore" was actually some PR to let Garza go quietly instead of "Brewers decline cheap option on pitcher that most fans now hate" news.

I don't think so. I vaguely recall reading the details of his contract when he was signed, with that weird $1m vesting option as injury protection but otherwise a 3-year deal. Then a year or so later, people started talking about this $5m option and I was like "huh?" but went with it anyway.

Kerb Hohl · Post #132 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:29 pm

coolhandluke121 wrote:
Kerb Hohl wrote:Going back a few weeks, ever the conspiracy theorist in these things me makes me wonder if the news of "oh, wait, actually Garza doesn't have a $5m option anymore" was actually some PR to let Garza go quietly instead of "Brewers decline cheap option on pitcher that most fans now hate" news.

I don't think so. I vaguely recall reading the details of his contract when he was signed, with that weird $1m vesting option as injury protection but otherwise a 3-year deal. Then a year or so later, people started talking about this $5m option and I was like "huh?" but went with it anyway.

Probably true. I'll wait until Alex Jones weighs in, though.

JHSFIVE · Post #133 » by **JHSFIVE** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:17 pm

coolhandluke121 wrote:Time to put Braun in there, not only against lhp's but also against some rhp's since I'm not convinced Thames should be getting 120 starts. I think Broxton could be a better use of a roster spot than Aguilar if Braun is moved out of the outfield.

agree 1000%.

I think that Thames' production/value is now on a massive downslide and why not do the best we can to maximize Braun's bat while minimizing his injury potential?

Also, not sold at all on a guy like Sogard. If walker cannot be retained, perhaps a guy like LeMahieu? He's an upcoming FA that'll hit for average all day long.

Kerb Hohl · Post #134 » by **Kerb Hohl** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:26 pm

JHSFIVE wrote:Also, not sold at all on a guy like Sogard. If walker cannot be retained, perhaps a guy like LeMahieu? He's an upcoming FA that'll hit for average all day long.

I agreed with your whole statement until this. LeMehieu is a borderline AAA player. Let someone else overpay for him in trade or contract.

Factoring in not playing at a park that elevates his average by 60 points when he's at home, but also factoring in that his away games are in tougher places in the NL West, I think he's a .275/.320/.360 hitter with the Brewers. I'm too lazy to remove the Chicago year from his splits, but his career road line is .270/.317/.351. No.

I am also not sold on Sogard, though.

If we want a guy with a slash-line like we could expect of LeMehieu for very cheap, I'd rather do a 1-year deal with Brandon Phillips, who probably is about a .700 type guy at this point in his career.

coolhandluke121 · Post #135 » by **coolhandluke121** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:55 pm

JHSFIVE wrote:agree 1000%.

I think that Thames' production/value is now on a massive downslide and why not do the best we can to maximize Braun's bat while minimizing his injury potential?

Also, not sold at all on a guy like Sogard. If walker cannot be retained, perhaps a guy like LeMahieu? He's an upcoming FA that'll hit for average all day long.

I think Thames is a guy who just can't stay focused over that many starts. He asked for mental days off and he had some ridiculous slumps. I think it takes all his focus to stay disciplined at the plate, and when he gets any fatigue at all (mental or physical), he reverts to bad habits. I think he'd be pretty solid in about 80 starts per year at 1b and as a ph. Braun could get most of the other starts, and he can start against rhp's and lhp's. He could still get some outfield starts too. It's probably reasonable to expect about 120 starts from him in an 80 1b/40 of split.

As for Sogard, it's not that I think he's the answer. It would just be the more disciplined thing to do than overpaying Walker or D.J. As the excitement of the year has worn off, level heads should be prevail with regard to where this team is now and what they project to be over the next 3 years or so. The beauty of Sogard is a cheap lottery ticket (maybe his knee really was bad for years and that's why it was his first good season?) while filling an obvious roster need and not compromising any payroll flexibility. It leaves space open for Dubon and eventually Diaz/Hiura, which is a must. And despite my contempt for Villar, I think the prudent move is to give him a year to recover some of his value because the raw talent is there and he's another lottery ticket in his own right. That balances their short-term and long-term interests better than Walker or D.J., neither of whom is a safe bet to be a .750 OPS guy on their next contract anyway.

crkone · Post #136 » by **crkone** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:32 pm

Thames had some injury issues, it got into his head, and he couldn't hold off on pitches outside the zone.

M-C-G · Post #137 » by **M-C-G** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:45 pm

crkone wrote:Thames had some injury issues, it got into his head, and he couldn't hold off on pitches outside the zone.

Wasn't that the problem with him before he went to Asia?

wichmae · Post #138 » by **wichmae** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:29 pm

Yeah Ill pass on DJ as well. Dubon will be on 40 man and if they cant retain Walker/Sogard he's probably got a shot at the job. Dubon may be the best baserunner we've ever had in our system. He's fast, gets great jumps, and also is smart. His main issue will and always be can he hit enough. There will obviously be non tender guys or NRI's (like Sogard, Swarzak) who have great years. If were going the pure FA route a two year (2nd year TO) with Nunez or Lowrie work as stop gaps. Trade candidates like Kinsler, Dietrich, or maybe even Panik if SF rebuilds. Panik would cost the most but there are options out there.

wichmae · Post #139 » by **wichmae** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:30 pm

M-C-G wrote:
crkone wrote:Thames had some injury issues, it got into his head, and he couldn't hold off on pitches outside the zone.

Wasn't that the problem with him before he went to Asia?

Outside plate coverage and hitting breaking stuff but yeah basically. He is who he is and a worthwhile player to play in spurts but not a regular.

El Duderino · Post #140 » by **El Duderino** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:45 pm

crkone wrote:Thames had some injury issues, it got into his head, and he couldn't hold off on pitches outside the zone.

He's also one of the few guys on the team though who gets on base at a good clip because he walks a lot. Only Santana had a higher OBP.

Thames is just so slump prone. One thing is certain, he has to be strictly platooned. He had a .933 OPS vs righthanders and .664 OPS vs lefties, including only a .182 batting average.